Stop flex items from displaying horizontally

Question

Stop flex items from displaying horizontally

I'm having an issue with flexbox where I want each item in a block to be on its own row. Specifically, I want the orange square to be positioned above the text, but it's currently displaying beside it due to using flex. Does anyone have a solution for this?

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>

    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

html css flexbox

Answer 1

Answer №1

Include the following style:

.inner {
  flex-direction: column;
}

This CSS snippet instructs the flexbox to arrange its child elements in rows rather than columns, which may seem counterintuitive.

Revised Example:

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column;
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>

    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 2

Include the following style:

.inner {
  flex-direction: column;
}

This CSS snippet instructs the flexbox to arrange its child elements in rows rather than columns, which may seem counterintuitive.

Revised Example:

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column;
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>

    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 3

Answer №2

By default, when you set a flex container to flex-direction: row, all the child elements will align horizontally.

To change this layout to vertical alignment, you can use flex-direction: column:

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column; /* NEW */
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>
    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

Alternatively, if you want to maintain the horizontal layout but only display one item per row, you can add flex-wrap: wrap to the container and ensure the children have a wide enough width (e.g., width: 100%):

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-wrap: wrap;             /* NEW */
  align-content: center;       /* NEW */
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

/* NEW */
p {
  flex: 0 0 100%;            
  text-align: center;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>
    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

^{* Remember, only direct children of a flex container participate in the layout. Descendants beyond them do not follow flex behavior.}

Answer 4

By default, when you set a flex container to flex-direction: row, all the child elements will align horizontally.

To change this layout to vertical alignment, you can use flex-direction: column:

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column; /* NEW */
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>
    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

Alternatively, if you want to maintain the horizontal layout but only display one item per row, you can add flex-wrap: wrap to the container and ensure the children have a wide enough width (e.g., width: 100%):

.container {
  height: 200px;
  width: 200px;
  background: cornflowerblue;
  position: relative;
}

.inner {
  height: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  top: 0;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-wrap: wrap;             /* NEW */
  align-content: center;       /* NEW */
}

.square {
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  background: tomato;
  display: block;
}

/* NEW */
p {
  flex: 0 0 100%;            
  text-align: center;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="inner">
    <div class="square"></div>
    <p>some text</p>
  </div>
</div>

^{* Remember, only direct children of a flex container participate in the layout. Descendants beyond them do not follow flex behavior.}

Answer 5

Answer №3

This question seems to be inspired by a discussion on the topic of Vertically aligning two flex items, which was wrongly marked as a duplicate.

For adjusting the vertical position of two elements differently, you can apply the following properties:

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

In a container with only two elements, the first one will appear at the top and the second one at the bottom. To vertically center one of them, you need to introduce an empty pseudo-element into the container, making it three elements inside the container.

.container:before {
  content: "";
}

html, body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
}

.container {
  width: 500px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  border: 5px solid orange;
  height: 100%;
  
  /* Flex properties */
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

.container:before {
  content: "";
}

.item-one {
  border: 5px solid yellow;
}

.item-two {
  border: 5px solid red;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="item-one">Item One</div>
  <div class="item-two">Item Two</div>
</div>

Answer 6

This question seems to be inspired by a discussion on the topic of Vertically aligning two flex items, which was wrongly marked as a duplicate.

For adjusting the vertical position of two elements differently, you can apply the following properties:

.container {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

In a container with only two elements, the first one will appear at the top and the second one at the bottom. To vertically center one of them, you need to introduce an empty pseudo-element into the container, making it three elements inside the container.

.container:before {
  content: "";
}

html, body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
}

.container {
  width: 500px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  border: 5px solid orange;
  height: 100%;
  
  /* Flex properties */
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: space-between;
}

.container:before {
  content: "";
}

.item-one {
  border: 5px solid yellow;
}

.item-two {
  border: 5px solid red;
}

<div class="container">
  <div class="item-one">Item One</div>
  <div class="item-two">Item Two</div>
</div>

Stop flex items from displaying horizontally

Answer №1

Answer №2

Answer №3

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